Greens backs Kingaroy group against potential coal mine

THE Australian Greens Party has showed its support to the Kingaroy Concerned Citizens Group, which has called on State Government to buy back a mining exploration permit.

The permit could see an open cut coal mine built just four km from Kingaroy.

Greens Deputy Leader and Senator for Queensland Larissa Waters congratulated the group for the action they had taken to protect their community.

"We must not sacrifice our farmland, groundwater or the health of our rural communities for short-sighted, economically risky and environmentally destructive coal mining," she said.

"Having a dirty great coal mine so close to residential area would mean that the local community could suffer serious health impacts from pollution and coal dust.

"The Queensland Government must heed the call from the residents of Kingaroy and do what is necessary to protect the local community, farmland and environment from this development.

"This is why the Greens have fought for years for landholders to be able to protect their land and groundwater from mining, sadly with no support from the other parties.

"Time and time again, the health of local communities is sacrificed for corporate profits and jobs that don't last. The reported proposal for an arsenic-heavy tailings pond upstream of the town's water supply should be an absolute red flag."

Ms Waters said the Greens stood with farmers, landholders and traditional owners against destructive coal and coal seam gas.

"Unlike the other parties, we don't take donations from fossil fuel companies. Thermal coal is in structural decline as the rest of the world moves to clean, cheap renewable energy," she said.

"The Australian Greens call on the Australian and Queensland Governments to ban all new coal mines and coal mine expansions and instead help rural communities participate in on the job-rich clean energy boom."